On the road again…

I’m flying back home to San Francisco today after a restful three weeks in Canada with my family.

Even as an adult, I find so much comfort in spending quality time with my parents. It centers me, and helps me reflect on my priorities.

Heading into Thanksgiving week, I want to encourage the entire Prequel community, near and far, to take a moment of gratitude for your family and those who have supported you. ❤️

Stop worrying about career paths

Nothing makes me more depressed than the thought of climbing the corporate ladder.

And 50% of Gen Z agrees. ✊

Instead, our youngest workforce generation is seeking to build a “career portfolio” instead of a “career path” — mainly through entrepreneurship, but that’s not the only option.

What’s a career portfolio?

And how the heck is it different from a resume? 📄

A resume is a timeline of jobs that a person has held. It’s meant to show a clear progression through a field in a way that demonstrates that they’ve mastered components of that field and “leveled-up”.

A career portfolio collects a person’s work and life experience, and draws connections and value between seemingly unrelated skills.

And here’s the best part — your kid is already building their career portfolio. They just don’t know it.

Create a career portfolio journal.

Your kid is earning experience every day, and they need to begin viewing that experience through a “lessons lens”. 🕶️

In the same way that figure skating taught me the process of “preparation, execution, review”, your kids are learning valuable unconscious lessons as they move through their daily routines.

The trick is to bring those lessons to the surface as early as possible so they can begin extracting value and train themselves to see them.

👉 This is as simple as journaling. At the end of each day, ask your kid to:

• Make a list of activities they did that day

• Write down one thing they felt challenged by

• Write down one thing that surprised them

Then, help them find the lesson. 👇

Add relationships to your career portfolio.

One concern from job seekers who don’t have “traditional” resumes is that it’s harder to get hired.

Yes and no.

Corporate hiring processes suck.

A consistent complaint from job seekers is that they’re overly-automated, time consuming, and more about gaming algorithms than thoughtful consideration.

But the reality is, 80% of jobs are filled through networking — so why focus on being a perfect traditional candidate to be part of the 20% minority?

“I received a generic rejection email from the last corporate job I applied for,” disclosed one current Prequel team member.

The catch? 😬

She had been personally asked to apply by the hiring manager — and HR didn’t think her application even warranted an interview. 🤯

The hiring manager ended up circumventing HR and giving her the job. 🤷

That same team member also recalled another corporate role she held, and was responsible for hiring some new managers.

She was able to attract a highly qualified candidate who she had worked with previously, and who had a decade of experience in a rare and valuable niche.

“But HR pushed back because he didn’t have the right degree,” she said.

They eventually permitted her to hire him, but not without a fight.

The lesson here isn’t for kids to make themselves attractive to HR — it’s to build relationships with the true decision-makers so they can bypass a broken process.

Encourage your kids to go forth, be different, and make friends.

Heck, that’s good advice for all of us. ❤️

This high schooler’s superpower? Her support system

We spend a lot of time talking about how to help kids deal with rejection.

But there’s one BETA Camp alum who has taken that skill to the next level.

Elizabeth and her BETA Camp team launched a startup aiming to revolutionize dementia diagnosis and care.

🧠 Her team trained an AI model to be able to recognize the difference between healthy brain scans and those that show early signs of dementia. They even created tests to help caregivers better understand their patients.

And if that weren’t jaw-dropping enough, Elizabeth has even completed research internships at top Ivy League universities — while still in high school.

But although Elizabeth’s resume seems to be overflowing with accolades, Elizabeth hasn’t had it easy.

In fact, she’s been told “no” so many times that she’s filled up an entire wall with her rejections.

But all of that still hasn’t stopped her.

How does she keep going? Her relationships are the key to her resilience. 👇

The cure for rejection: relationships.

Elizabeth was in the midst of a competitive application process to top high schools, and she was being repeatedly rejected.

“It felt like the end of the world,” says Elizabeth.

🪄 There was no magic wand that could make that rejection disappear. 

So Elizabeth turned to trusted friends to share her feelings.

And in the process, she discovered something amazing: having someone view her situation from the outside was not only validating, but helpful for figuring out where to go next.

When kids are in the thick of a stressful situation, they can’t always see clearly. Relationships offer a healthy dose of perspective.

But, she emphasizes, you can’t just use your support system and not offer anything in return.

So Elizabeth decided to regularly make herself available for others as a peer counselor and a mentor for younger kids.

To get support, you gotta give support.

Even though Elizabeth’s schedule was packed to the brim, she still made time to give back.

And it’s been totally worth it.

For her, mentoring younger kids has been fulfilling in and of itself. It’s her way of paying it forward — giving kids the same kind of support she received from her own mentors.

Elizabeth’s support system kept her going even in the worst of times — and now, she’s there to help others keep going, too.

Her advice for kids who want to do the same? Become a better listener.👂

Elizabeth fully agrees with that sentiment. 

Now, she’s become a pro at listening with the intent to understand — as a Turkish student attending a US high school, she’s had to learn how to connect with people who have a totally different culture than her own.

“People don’t know my culture, but I also don’t know theirs,” says Elizabeth. “It’s a process of understanding and appreciating each other.”

Cultural divides are a difficult gap to bridge, and the transition wasn’t easy. But Elizabeth used her top-tier communication skills to ease the discomfort and find similarities with her peers.

“We could make a huge list of our differences, but at the end of the day we are all humans.” 🌎

Resilience and relationships are the secret to my success

I thought my career path would be traditional.

After graduating from a top university, I moved to Silicon Valley to start my career in tech.

Everything was going according to plan — until it wasn’t.

I founded BETA Camp because I was stuck at home during COVID, and wanted to help my teen sister launch a business.

I had no idea at that time that one small deviation would change my life — dramatically, and for the better.

When BETA Camp got acquired and I was put in charge of building out a broader collection of programs through Prequel, the first thing I needed was a rockstar team.

Instead of turning to job boards, I started talking to friends. Almost all of the team at Prequel was recruited through personal relationships.

So I can say, wholeheartedly and from personal experience, the most important skills we can teach our kids are resilience and relationships.

Until next time,

Ivy

CEO Prequel, BETA Camp, Apollo

Follow my journey on LinkedIn